Airdrops

A supply aircraft crosses the map, releases its cargo on a parachute, and whoever gets there first — and holds it — gets the loot. Staff schedule them, so there is no fixed timetable to learn; you learn to listen instead.

The aircraft

Two aircraft fly drops:

• The C-130J, a four-engine cargo plane. It flies high and fast, opens its rear ramp shortly before the drop and closes it again afterwards.
• The Mi-8, a transport helicopter. It comes in lower and slower, and its rotor wash kicks up dust, snow or spray underneath it.

Both carry navigation lights, strobes and a beacon, and their engines carry a long way — you will usually hear a drop before you see it. The Mi-8 can be shot at. When it takes hits everybody on the server is told "The supply helicopter is taking fire", so shooting at it also announces that someone is waiting for it.

Knowing a drop is coming

• On-screen notices follow each stage: an aircraft has entered the area, the cargo has been released, a drop has touched down, and a drop has been cracked open. None of them tells you where — you never get coordinates.
• Carry a radio. A switched-on, working Handheld Transceiver anywhere in your inventory plays a radio call when a supply aircraft takes off. On Namalsk the PA speakers play it too.
• Past that it is eyes and ears: engine noise, the aircraft itself, and the smoke.

Finding it: the smoke

Every drop is marked with coloured smoke. A small plume trails the cargo while it falls under its parachute. Once it lands it sends up a tall column, as big as a helicopter-crash smoke, visible from a long way off.

The colour tells you what kind of drop it is before you get there:

Parachute crates

The AirDrop crates come in several colours and shapes. Most of them are opened with a timed action; depending on the drop that needs a tool or just your hands, and some crates open themselves on landing.

Some drops are guarded. When infected waves spawn around a crate, the opening pauses — the prompt reads "Opening paused: waiting for the wave" and "Eliminate the guards: N" counts what is left. Clear the wave and carry on.

Hazardous drops can release a toxic cloud around them. Bring a gas mask (Combat Gas Mask or better) if you are going for a black-smoke drop.

Walk-in containers

The big drops are shipping containers in seven categories: AirDrop container (military), AirDrop container (medical), AirDrop container (food), AirDrop container (industrial), AirDrop container (construction), AirDrop container (civilian) and AirDrop container (hazardous). The helicopter carries one slung underneath; the C-130J can push one out of the ramp under three parachutes.

A container arrives sealed, and you get in by hacking the tablet on its door:

1. Walk up to a door and hold Hack container for a few seconds. Whether you need something in your hands depends on the drop — the prompt only appears when what you are holding (or your bare hands) is allowed to start it.
2. The tablet screen switches from SECURE CONTAINER to BYPASS IN PROGRESS, with the time left and a progress bar. From here the countdown runs by itself — you defend the container until it finishes.
3. Guards jam it. When an infected wave is up the screen reads UPLINK JAMMED and ELIMINATE GUARDS with the number of hostiles left, and the countdown stops until they are dead. If the screen shows UPLINK LOST — RECONNECT TABLET instead, hold the hack action on the tablet again. Either way the progress already made is kept.
4. At ACCESS GRANTED every door of the container unlocks at once, for everyone standing there.

The tablet's sounds carry, so a hack in progress is heard by anyone nearby.

What goes wrong

• "I heard the plane but got no marker." There is no marker. Follow the notices, the engine noise and the smoke.
• "The crate will not open." A wave is up — clear the guards — or the drop needs a tool you are not holding.
• "The container countdown stopped." Guards are up (kill them) or the uplink was lost (reconnect the tablet). The timer continues from where it stopped.
• "I got gassed at a drop." It was a hazardous drop. Wear a mask.